<aside> 💡 本文写于 Apr 5, 2018

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In “The rationalization of publishing,” I argued that subscriptions for publishing on a wide scale are inevitable — and that’s a good thing. Now I will describe Medium’s unique approach to this opportunity.

在《出版的合理化》一文中，我认为大范围的订阅出版是不可避免的 —— 这也是一件好事。现在我将介绍一下Medium在这个机会上的独特做法。

First, in case you’re not aware, Medium has a subscription offering called Medium Membership. We launched it just over a year ago. Here’s what growth has looked like since then:

首先，如果你还不知道，Medium有一个名为Medium Membership的订阅产品。我们在一年多前推出了它。以下是自那时以来的增长情况。

After a strong start (when people were really just subscribing because they believed in and wanted to support Medium’s mission — 🙏), and a mediocre middle (when we were figuring it out), we’re now seeing not only more subscribers, but higher-percentage gains every month this year (accelerating growth).

在经历了强劲的开始（当时人们真的只是因为相信并希望支持Medium的使命而订阅--🙏）和平庸的中间（当我们还在摸索的时候）之后，我们现在看到的不仅是更多的用户，而且今年以来每个月都有更高的百分比增长（加速增长）。

The factors driving this took us a while to figure out and then get into motion, but they’re gratifyingly simple. In fact, there are just two major 🔑s:

驱动这一切的因素我们花了好一阵子才弄清楚，然后进入了运动状态，但令人欣慰的是，它们很简单。事实上，主要的因素只有两个🔑。

1. Put great stories behind the metered paywall. 把优质的故事放在计量收费墙背后。
2. Help people find the great stories they care about. 帮助人们找到他们关心的优质故事。

In these ways, Medium is not unlike other digital media subscription businesses like the Washington Post or The New Yorker — or even Spotify and Netflix. We sell content on a subscription basis. Like most paywalled sites, we give some stories away for free (currently, it’s three per month). But unlike most paywalled publications, we rely solely on subscriptions (no advertising), and we have a mix of original and non-original content. Medium is also an open platform, which makes it different than most premium subscription products — except for Spotify and other music services, which anyone can upload to and get paid (if they know what they’re doing).

在这些方面，Medium与《华盛顿邮报》或《纽约客》等其他数字媒体订阅业务 —— 甚至Spotify和Netflix也不例外。我们以订阅的方式出售内容。和大多数付费网站一样，我们会免费赠送一些故事（目前是每月三篇）。但与大多数付费围城的出版物不同，我们完全依靠订阅（没有广告），而且我们的内容混合了原创和非原创内容。Medium也是一个开放的平台，这使得它与大多数付费订阅产品不同--除了Spotify和其他音乐服务，任何人都可以上传到这个平台并获得报酬（如果他们知道自己在做什么）。

Let me break down the various aspects of of the Medium model. Most of them are not, on their own, unique to Medium. But in combination, they create a powerful formula:

让我来分解一下Medium模式的各方面。它们中的大多数，就其本身而言，并不是Medium所独有的。但结合起来，它们创造了一个强大的公式。